Below the Threshold, A Poison
by Terrence Orson
Summary: Anais Watterson is a smart young girl. She helps her two brothers, who are in middle school, with their homework, she cooks their food, and she even goes to school with them even though she's only four. These are the makings of a prodigy. But how mature is she really in terms of "drugs?"


**Below the Threshold, A Poison  
**

**By**

**Marches45**

**A Satirical and Symbolic Amazing World of ****Gumball FanFiction One-Shot**

Text copyright and plot of _Below the Threshold, A Poison_ © Marches45 Story Network, 2013 - Present. The characters and setting of TAWOG belong to Ben Bocquelet and Cartoon Network.

Acknowledgements:

Dfitz8248. Thank you for beta reading this prior to its publication.

* * *

Television. We all watch it. We all enjoy watching it. Many shows entertain us. Other shows horrify us because they are scary, or because they just suck so much. I won't say what shows I think suck, but you get my drift. Anyway, a good show always grabs our attention. This is certainly true about many children, including myself. In fact, it's so true, my past skill with storytelling proves it. You've seen how bad I've been at writing in the past, right? Of course, if whatever happens in this tale were to happen in real life… oy.

* * *

Anais Watterson, a four-year-old pink rabbit, was sitting in the middle of the couch in the living room of her house one Sunday. The windows curtains were drawn so as to let light in as she leaned back against the slightly worn cushions, holding the remote in one hand and her stuffed Daisy the Donkey doll in the other as she watched her favorite TV show, _Daisy the Donkey_.

Ordinarily, it would be her father, Richard Watterson, in the living room watching TV. Of course, he would also be simultaneously sleeping, like the lovable yet lazy oaf he was, but because Anais had asked him to have the TV while giving a cute smile, drooping her ears, folding her hands underneath her chin, essentially pulling the old "puppy dog eyes" look on him like the spoiled brat she sometimes was, he had chosen instead to do his usual routine in his bedroom.

There was a special reason that Anais wanted the living room TV. Today, there was a marathon of the show on Channel 741. The network was presenting all the episodes of the first two seasons in order of original air date. This was all in preparation for the new season 3 premier episode that would air tonight at 20:00. Even though Anais had it set to record, she wanted to see it at its airtime so that when she went to school and obviously talked about the show with her friends, nothing would be a spoiler for her.

Her mother, Nicole Watterson, a blue cat in her forties, walked in from upstairs towards the kitchen. "Anais, what would you like for lunch?" she asked, stopping behind the couch to look at her daughter.

"Um, how about," Anais answered, putting her hand to her chin as she thought for a second while keeping her gaze fixed on the TV, "spaghetti?" Yeah, I'm not gonna use the stereotype that rabbits like carrots. It's really unoriginal.

"Alright," Nicole said as she started walking again. She stopped as she got in the doorway and turned around. "Oh, and Anais?"

Anais still didn't turn her head or move her gaze as she said, "Yeah?"

Looking annoyed for a moment because of Anais' action, or lack thereof, Nicole advised before going into the kitchen to prepare the meal, "Don't let the TV rot your brain." At Nicole's implication that Anais lacked maturity, though she wanted to test her, Anais glared a little. She simply ignored her mother and continued watching the program.

Once lunch was ready, Nicole put the bowl on the table, left the kitchen, and beckoned Anais to come to the kitchen to eat as she went upstairs. Anais, waiting for a commercial to come on, sat there as if her mother had said nothing.

"Anais, if you don't come soon, your food will get cold, and I'm not reheating it," Nicole, who was upstairs, said the last clause authoritatively. At hearing that, Anais groaned before she got up off of the couch and started walking up the stairs. She lagged behind to catch the rest of the episode she was washing before finally going to the upstairs bathroom to wash her hands, allowing her spaghetti to sit out on the table for about ten minutes.

Anais walked into the kitchen, took her spaghetti to the living room with her by climbing up and down the chair at the table and grabbing and setting down her bowl when appropriate so she wouldn't drop her food and make a mess that her mother would obviously have to clean. After that, Anais sat back down just in time for the commercial to end.

She took a forkful of the spaghetti and ate it, but because it had gotten cold, it tasted a bit… creamy, so Anais disgustedly swallowed it, and then she exclaimed, "Gosh darn it!" With no other options, she waited for the next commercial, letting it get even colder, before putting it back in the microwave and reheating it, which required use of a step-ladder because she was so short. When she came back, she ate her meal in about fifteen minutes. She spilled a few drops of sauce on her golden-yellow dress and on the couch, but they were small enough for her not to notice, at least, on the couch. She saw what was on her dress, but she didn't really care.

There was another reason that Anais was intent on catching every moment of all the episodes even though she'd seen them all. That reason was that constantly doing academic stuff was starting to get boring to her, and she had never once watched TV for more than a few hours in a day. She thought she was mature enough to handle this, considering that she always made her brother's breakfast every morning and helped them with their homework. Surely, she had to be mature enough to watch more TV.

Speaking of her brothers, Gumball and Darwin, some time after Anais had finished eating and putting her bowl in the kitchen sink, using the step-ladder, a baseball unexpectedly came in from outside. It crashed through the window and hurtled right at Anais, who still sat on the couch watching Daisy the Donkey. The glass shards that took the window's place lay in a pile near the window while the baseball hit her hard in the side of her head, knocking her over to the right side of the couch.

"Ow!" she cried as her hand darted to her head to massage it. A goose egg formed where she rubbed, which one have to expect since she had just gotten a powerful hit to the head because _somebody _couldn't catch worth a damn, and if he could, it was only a fluke. Well, it certainly got Anais to divert her attention from the TV.

Gumball Watterson, Anais' 12-year-old cat brother, came in to retrieve the ball from the couch when he saw Anais in pain. He grimaced guiltily at the sight.

"Ooh. Sorry, Anais," Gumball said a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his furry blue head as he leaned over and reached for the baseball. Anais looked at him and growled. Her pupils were tiny, her face was scrunched up and wrinkled, and her teeth were sharp and jagged.

"Gumball!" she shouted, making him jump back a little and drop the baseball on the carpet. "You are such a klutz!" She stood up on the couch and got in Gumball's face as she clutched her head with one hand, balled her other into a fist, and ordered, "I want you and Darwin to stop playing catch because _you_ clearly can't!" She pointed at Gumball as she said the last part. Gumball took a step back, looking a little fearful.

"Then, I want you to come back inside and do something more productive with your time than just breaking everything!"

"But you have the TV," Gumball said calmly, raising an eyebrow.

"FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO, STUPID!" she yelled in his face.

"Okay!" said Gumball, raising his arms and putting out his hands in a "stop" gesture, trying to get Anais to shut up. "No need to get so salty," he added. This comment only made Anais even saltier; she picked up and threw one of the couch pillows at him. It hit him squarely in the face before falling at his feet to the floor. Gumball dropped his hands to his sides and, staring expressionlessly at nothing, walked out the door to get Darwin while Anais angrily watched him leave.

Nicole came downstairs as soon as Gumball had gone back outside. She had faintly heard glass breaking, but she wasn't exactly sure. She had definitely heard Anais yelling, so that triggered her desire to investigate.

When Nicole saw the glass shards on the carpet, a baseball on the floor, and Anais gripping her head, she gasped, horrified. She ran to Anais and fell to her knees as she grabbed her daughter's head protectively. When she let go, she asked, "Anais, are you all right? Did you get cut with any glass?"

"I'm fine, except for this goose-egg," Anais answered, pointing to the bruise on the left side of her head. Nicole gently put her hand on the bruise before standing up.

"I'll go get some ice," said Nicole as she ran into the kitchen and took an ice pack from inside the freezer door. She quickly wrapped it in a paper towel, a roll of which was standing next to the sink, and she brought it to Anais, who pressed it against her wound and cringed slightly at the sudden change in temperature she felt.

"Now, where are the boys?" asked Nicole, her tone changing from protective to stern.

"They just came back inside," said Anais, hoping to get Gumball in trouble. "They're upstairs."

Nicole picked up the baseball and followed her sons upstairs. "Boys!" she called out with intent to scold. Anais couldn't help but chuckle at the events that were about to unfold. She then returned her attention back to the TV while her mother scolded her brothers and confined them to their room for a time.

For the next few hours, Anais held the ice pack to her head while remaining fixated on the TV set unless there were commercials, which started to last only a minute or two. She only took about a 25-minute break at around 17:00 because Nicole wanted to give her a bath. Once that was over, she was back to her hypnosis session. By then, she no longer needed the ice pack on her head because the bruise had gone down enough. She hardly seemed to notice that the sky outside had gotten darker, along with the TV screen seemingly getting brighter as her mouth fell slightly open and her tongue lolled out of her mouth just a bit. She almost seemed like a mindless zombie.

By a little after 19:00, her brain couldn't take it anymore. She had spent a little bit of time up to that point trying to keep her eyes shut, but it was simply too much. "Anais! Anais!" her brain attempted to yell, but her voice was merely a hoarse whisper. Being in front of the TV for much of the day had severely weakened her to the point that she lacked her normal level of vociferousness. Fortunately, Anais could detect her brain's faint voice.

"What the…?" said Anais, confused. She didn't know where the voice was coming from. "Who said that?" she said to the voice. Suddenly, she felt an odd tap coming from the inside of her large head. Her brain was trying to open her head so she could speak to her, the same way Gumball's brain had exited his head when he proved how much of a challenge it was for him to read a book at age 12 that was at a much lower lexile level than what Anais had been able to read in her sleep…when she was three. Anais reached up to feel her head where her brain's hands were weakly pushing on her skull like it was the cap of a small M&M bottle one would see next to the conveyor belt of a store cash register.

With as much power as she could muster, Anais' brain faintly shouted, "Anais! Open up your head! Let me out!" It was loud enough for Anais to hear clearly enough. She put her right hand to her forehead, touching the area a couple inches above her eyes. As though it was a lid, she pulled her head open, allowing her brain to slowly and weakly climb out and get onto the couch. Once she landed on a cushion on Anais' left side, she took a moment to catch her cerebral breath. Anais used the opportunity to close her head back.

"Anais. Put the TV aside!" her brain gasped. She was on her hands and knees because she was worn out and exhausted.

"What? No! It's almost eight o'clock! I have to see the new season premier, or it'll be a spoiler for me at school tomorrow!" Anais protested against her brain.

"Well, I hope _this_ isn't a _spoiler_ for your appetite!" AB (Anais' Brain) said as she stood up, turned around and showed the front side of herself to Anais.

AB looked like a regular brain. She was pink, and she was covered with a thin layer of cerebrospinal fluid, making her a bit slippery to the touch. Her voice was somewhat similar to Anais', but because of her new problem, it was very raspy and hoarse. The problem with AB was that on her left side, there was no pink; instead, there was only a nasty looking dark green. On closer inspection of the texture, one could tell that it was a moldy substance.

"Ew!" Anais exclaimed, grimacing. "What is that?"

AB looked at the four-year-old rabbit with a little disgust and contempt. "This," she rasped, pointing to the mold, "is rot. Brain rot. This is what happens when you do activities that don't stimulate me. And you watched TV for pretty much the entire day. It affected me faster than it would have if you were around your brother's age." AB then pointed her finger away from herself and pointed it at Anais. "You should have listened to your mother this afternoon. Now, you've made me rot." She put her hands on her nonexistent hips. "And you know what that means? It means you've lost some of your intelligence."

"What?" Anais cried. "I can't have lost my smarts. That's what makes me who I am!"

"I know, and that's why we're going to try to reverse the effects of this _poison_!" said AB, pointing at the TV. She then climbed over Anais' legs to reach the remote. She grabbed it and turned off the TV. "Now, come with me." AB climbed off of the couch and went to the stairs, Anais following her. After climbing about six steps, AB got too tired, so she asked Anais to carry her the rest of the way to her room. When they were both in, Anais closed the door and sat in one of the tiny chairs at her small tea party table in the middle of the room. AB went into Anais' book bag, which was at the foot of her bed, and took out, with a little difficulty, Anais' school binder.

Anais' binder was tidy and well-organized, unlike Gumball's, which was messy, full of crumpled paper, and completely disorganized. Anais had arranged all of her papers, notes, handouts, and such materials by class period, so it wasn't really difficult for AB to find what she was looking for: a piece of notebook paper, a pencil, and some of Anais' notes. She gave Anais the paper and pencils; then, she took out the mathematics notes and looked over them.

AB proceeded to reteach Anais what she had lost because of her quickly acquired addiction. First, she went over mathematics. Anais could still do the basic operations of math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but she needed to relearn them in terms of algebra.

"8x + 5 = 7x + 18. Solve for x," AB instructed. Then, she showed Anais how to solve the equation. After a few repetitions, Anais finally got the hang of it again, so they moved on to harder concept, such as inequalities. Anais conquered those, too. So, the two moved on to Reading/Language Arts, then to Physical Science, then to Social Studies.

Anais remastered all the material rather quickly. By the time she had reviewed everything from the year, the rot on AB had almost completely vanished, despite the fact that the two weren't physically linked at the moment. She was stronger, her voice had begun to carry more power, and overall, she felt much healthier.

"Great job, Anais," AB congratulated. "You're back to normal. And look at that." She pointed at the clock on Anais' nightstand. "It's only 20:25."

Anais sighed in both relief and disappointment as she rested her head in her hand and looked down. She was happy to have recovered the intelligence that she had lost, but she was discontent at having missed what she had looked forward to all day. Apparently, an unhappy attitude was contagious because when AB took notice, her mood sank.

"I know, Anais," she said sympathetically, placing her hand on Anais' shoulder. "I know you wanted to see the new season premier, but you were getting an addiction. A really fast one at that. You could have gotten dumber than your brother, and then, I'd be nothing but a pile of rot in your head."

"Yeah. That's true," Anais admitted, looking down. Just then, Nicole opened the door behind the two. "Dinner's ready, Anais," she said. Anais looked up and turned her head to face her.

"I'll be right down," she said. Nicole put one hand on her hip.

"I see you've finally put the TV down and found something more worthwhile to do." The right side of Nicole's lip curled upward.

"Yep," said Anais. "(I) don't want to hurt _her_ anymore." She pointed to her brain.

"Who?" Nicole asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My brain, AB," Anais pointed again at AB.

"Anais, there's no one right there," said Nicole matter-of-factly. "Now, come on, your dinner is getting cold." She left the room as Anais looked down at AB, dumbfounded.

Raising an eyebrow, Anais asked, "Wait a minute. AB, are you —"

"A mere apparition invented by the strange workings that occur within your imagination? Why, yes. Yes, I am," AB said, smiling, her hands folding behind her back before slowly fading into nothing before Anais' eyes, which widened once AB was gone.

Anais couldn't believe it. She had imagined that her brain had talked sense into her about her intelligence and how the TV was negatively affecting her when really, it was she who had taken it upon herself to undo her self-inflicted mental injury. She looked down at her binder, which was open on the table in front of her.

"Wow," she breathed monotonously. "Even I don't know the power of my own mind."

"Anais!" Nicole yelled from the kitchen. "Come to the table now!"

"Coming!" Anais responded. When she stood up from her chair, a popping sound could be heard, and she quietly cried out and grabbed the back of her pelvis. Sitting with bad posture had caused a bubble of air to form, and once she stood, the bubble had popped, causing an instantaneous sensation of slight pain in Anais' lower back followed by a hollow feeling of it just happening.

Anais went to the bathroom to wash her hands as soon as the pain went away. Before going straight to the table, Anais turned on the TV and went into the DVR to find the new episode of Daisy the Donkey. She pressed play and then went to the table, where she somewhat had a view of the TV. Even though she had just done something to combat what the TV had caused, she still felt compelled to watch the new episode, proving that even though she was smart beyond her years, even she could sometimes slip.

This was a family dinner minus one. Richard had chosen to take his meal, a sausage with a drumstick, upstairs with him to the master bedroom so that he didn't have to get up from the table to go to the bed. That way, he could eat and then go right to bed.

Gumball and Darwin were already at the table, wolfing down their food. Anais sat to Darwin's right and began eating her dinner regularly: chicken nuggets with a side of corn on the cob. Luckily for her, it was still warm when she got to the table, so she didn't need it reheated. As she ate, she thought about the appearance of AB when she had first climbed out of her head. She recalled the mold, which looked like rotten butter, that was on AB's left side, the side that contributed more to Anais' intelligence. She shuddered at the thought and tried to suppress it so that she wouldn't lose her appetite.

While eating, Anais watched that of the show which she was able, spilling crumbs of the chicken's breading on her place mat, though it was nothing compared to what Gumball had left behind once he had finished. Nicole observed Anais' actions, particularly because Anais usually never spilled food unless back in her dish, so she commented.

"Anais, please be careful with how you handle your food," warned Nicole. "Don't spill anything on the floor." Anais looked down at her table setting and saw the mess she was making. She swallowed the piece of chicken that was already in her mouth, and then, she began paying more attention to her food to keep any new crumbs on the plate. After finishing the chicken, she used her fork gather all of the scattered crumbs that were on her place mat into a pile next to her plate before picking them up with her fork and eating them, thinking, _That's one less thing for Mom to clean_.

After finishing the corn cob, Anais spent the rest of the night trying to get the corn out of her teeth. She scraped her teeth with her tongue and even stuck her finger in her mouth. There was, of course, one piece she simply couldn't get with either method. But that didn't matter because it was nearing the time for her to go to bed, so she went to the upstairs bathroom and brushed her teeth, naturally removing the food particle.

At 21:15, Nicole tucked Anais, who had changed into her pajamas, into bed.

"Goodnight, Mom," yawned Anais, curling up under the comforter.

"Goodnight, honey," said Nicole sweetly. She kissed her daughter's forehead before turning out the light and leaving. Once Anais was sure that her mother had gone, she got out of bed and set her alarm clock to 5:30, so that she could get up an hour early, watch the new _Daisy_ _the Donkey_ again, but with full view of the TV, and sneak back to bed before anyone got up. She even brought the clock in bed with her so as to muffle the sound even though it wasn't loud enough to wake everyone in the house up when it rang.

Meanwhile, Nicole went into her bedroom and found Richard's rotund body on the bed. He was asleep, snoring loudly while the TV was playing. The plate that had the bone from his chicken was on his stomach. Sticking to his mouth were sausage grease and crumbs from the drumstick. The whole sight made up half of what Nicole though of her husband. Sighing, she grabbed the plate off of him and brought it downstairs to the kitchen sink. Then, she took out a note and a pen from her pocket and bared down on the refrigerator to write down a new task she had: vacuuming the floor. Next, Nicole went back upstairs to the master bathroom and brushed her teeth before waking up Richard and telling him to do the same. Finally, Nicole got in the bed and slowly went to sleep. Richard soon followed suit after taking off his shirt, clip-on tie, and pants, only leaving his underwear on.

It took eight hours, but finally, the alarm clock went off. Anais pulled it out from under the covers and shut it off. Yawning, she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Then, she quietly sneaked over to the door. She grabbed the spherical knob, hoping not to make any noise. Unfortunately, the mechanisms within the knob could hardly move without causing vibrations. Once Anais got the door open, she checked to see if the noise had woken anyone up. When she saw no one, she crept downstairs. Once she was in the living room, she grabbed the remote, turned on the TV, lowered its brightness and sound volume, went into the DVR, found her desired show, sat on the couch, and enjoyed.

Once it was over, she attempted to set everything back to how it was so she wouldn't leave evidence that she had been there. What Anais forgot was that her mother could smell trouble. When she got to the top of the stairs, she could see the outline of her mother staring down at her. She gasped in surprise. She had been caught.

"Anais, go back to bed," Nicole ordered, pointing at the bedroom. "It's too early for you to be up." Anais silently followed the order. She walked into her room and got under the covers. Nicole came to the bedroom to close the door behind Anais. The sound produced carried some of her anger. Anais stayed in her room until 6:30, at which time, she made her bed, went to the bathroom, used the toilet and washed her hands, and continued downstairs for breakfast.

"Anais, I could almost expect something similar from Gumball, but this isn't like you," said Nicole authoritatively while Anais was eating her bowl of Daisy Flakes. "For sneaking downstairs this morning, I'm taking away your TV privileges for the day. I hope whatever you were watching was worth it." Nicole sipped her cup of coffee she had made for herself while Anais sighed in disappointment and continued eating in silence.

After a few minutes, the boys came to the table. They were completely dressed, except for Darwin, who only wore shoes. "Good morning," greeted Gumball, making a failed attempt at imitating Uncle Grandpa because he thought the show was cool even though it really wasn't. "Hello," Darwin added cheerily as he normally would.

"Good morning, boys," answered Nicole. They sat down, poured themselves a bowl of cereal and milk, and ate while Anais finished and then went to take a bath. Of course, she had to wake up her Dad so he could bathe her since her mother was still drinking coffee.

Anais came into the master bedroom, closed the door behind her, and approached her father. She poked him in a special area of his belly that always got him to jerk and fidget in an amusing way. When that didn't work, she whispered, "Mom's making you a tray of sausages," into the wall farthest from his slumbering form. Richard's eyes shot open and without thinking, he shot out of bed and ran to the door. He crashed into it with a loud thud and landed on his butt. Anais was cracking up while Richard rubbed his head.

"Good morning, honey," he said, fully awake.

"Good morning, Dad," said Anais once she got her laughter under control. "Um, could you give me a bath, please?"

"Uh, sure," he said standing up. He opened the door, went into the bathroom, still only in his underpants from last night, and filled the tub with water. Anais came in behind him, and after closing the bathroom door, she undressed. It was okay since he was her father, and not being a pervert, and she was only four. As soon as she got in the tub, Nicole opened the door, took a look inside the bathroom, and said, "Thank you, Richard, but I'll take it from here. You go relax, and put some pants on while you're at it."

Richard maneuvered his way around Nicole as best as he could in the small bathroom until he was at the door. Closing it behind him, he left his wife to bathe their daughter and went back to his bedroom, where he put on his clothes. He left and went downstairs to the living room couch, on which he sat down and instantly fell asleep. His mouth was wide open and in the shape of a smile as he drooled.

After her bath, Anais got dressed, brushed her teeth, packed her binder and pencils into her book bag, and left to the bus stop with her brothers.

"Bye, kids!" called Nicole from the laundry room next to the kitchen.

"Bye, Mom!" they responded before walking out the door.

The three of them waited at the bus stop for ten minutes. Once they climbed aboard, they split up. Gumball sat in the free seat that happened to be behind his crush, Penny Fitzgerald, who was in the back section of the bus; Darwin sat next to the emo ghost Carrie Krueger, who was nearer to the middle. She was watching a video from Elmore Stream on her touchscreen phone and listening through her headphones. Darwin put his hand into her ghostly head to get her attention, and she took one of the ear buds out so she could hear him. "What?" she asked darkly.

"Can I watch with you?" Darwin asked.

"Sure," she sighed and moved the phone so the screen was viewable to both of them. Darwin held one of the ear buds to the area where his ears would be if he had them. The two watched as a guy who claimed he could dislocate every bone in his body proceeded to do so. The sight and the sound grossed Darwin out, causing him to utter successive, high-pitched groans and leaving him with a look of pure horror. Carrie, on the other hand, made the "Me Gusta" meme face as she watched it. She phased her arm through Darwin and showed him her face. At seeing his creeped out expression, she burst out laughing. Darwin glared at her a little for a short time before completely directing his attention elsewhere.

Carrie went to comment on the video, using the special new meme emoji keyboard to type the "Me Gusta" face. She pressed _Send_, and then she pressed the _Like_ button.

Anais sat by herself near the front and rode in silence, watching all of the buildings by which the bus driver, Rocky Robinson, an orange muppet-like creature, drove. When the bus finally stopped, Anais waited for Gumball to get to her seat.

"Gumball, would you carry me? Please?" she asked him. Before he had the chance to respond, she made the same puppy dog eyes look on him. He countered with his own puppy dog eye look, and the battle went on for a few more seconds before Stephen, a dog with light-colored fur, black, floppy ears, and feminine hips like Gumball, spoke up.

"Can you move, please?" he asked, annoyed. "We're all waiting." He gestured to everyone behind him still on the bus. They were all trying to look towards the front of the bus to see what the holdup was.

Stephen had broken Gumball's concentration, costing him the battle. Sighing in defeat, Gumball grabbed his sister and carried her off the bus, down the sidewalk, up the concrete stairs, and into the school, earning laughter from his peers.

"Alright. I carried you," Gumball said, setting her down at his locker. "Now, you have to walk the rest of the way to your class." He dialed the combination, took out the various books he needed, and went to his first period class. Anais made her way to her classroom and joined some of her friends, who were seated at the right-hand table that was in the middle of the three rows. They were talking about the new episode of _Daisy the Donkey_.

"Hey, guys," said Anais, pulling a chair out from under the table and sitting in it.

"What's up, Anais? Did you see the new episode?" asked Amber, a gray wolf cub who tied with Anais for the BEST IN CLASS OVERALL PERFORMANCE award for Mr. Graham's Advanced Social Studies Class.

"Yeah, and it was great," Anais answered. Before she could say another word, the school tardy bell rang, followed by the morning announcements.

"Good morning, students," said Mr. Graham from his desk. Mr. Graham was a canary with an anthropomorphic body shape. His face was mostly yellow while having a dark-colored area on the left side of his "chin." He wore a plain white collared long sleeve shirt that covered his yellow feathery arms, gray pants, and no shoes. Common among most of the students of Elmore Junior High, but unusual among regular canaries, Mr. Graham had fingers. Standing up, he grabbed a piece of paper from a large stack. He handed them out to all of the students.

"Today, we're having a pop quiz on the Classical Roman Empire," he announced while he passed the papers out. "It should last for most of the period." Most of the students groaned at hearing this. Fortunately, Anais felt prepared after making some study time for herself yesterday. Once she got her quiz paper, she quickly and confidently gave her answers. She managed to finish first, sure of herself.

Meanwhile, Nicole was at the Rainbow Factory office building, using the computer in her office to look up the show _Daisy the Donkey_. She didn't completely understand the appeal of it all, considering that she wasn't part of the target audience, so she decided to look it up to see what all the hype was about. On Wikipedia, she found the show's reception and discovered that the show received an average critical rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars. Some critics stated that the show was simply "dull and boring while trying to use thin color to conceal its flaws." Nicole read on intently, agreeing with the multiple takes on the show.

Soon, she reached the section about a controversy dealing with the program. Researchers linked it to later cases of ADHD, ADD, and other such disorders, in young children, along with lower average school performance by tween viewers of the show. Nicole gasped and read the text on the screen with wide eyes and shrunken pupils. She couldn't stand the thought of letting her daughter watch a show that could result in such afflictions, so she made a mental note to tell Anais that night that she wasn't allowed to watch the show anymore, and the same went for her brothers, especially Gumball, who she believed needed to improve seven years ago. Then, she thanked her lucky stars that Anais had taken some time last night to stimulate her brain and keep it sharp.

At 15:45, the school day ended. Gumball initially opted to ride the bus, but Darwin went against it.

"Gumball, didn't you say you want to join the cross-country team when you get to high school?" Darwin had asked.

"Yeah, but I've given up that desire," Gumball had said, shrugging. "We all know I'm probably not gonna go to high school. I mean, have you seen my report card?" He laughed a little as he said that.

"Still, it would be good exercise in general," Darwin pressed on, putting his hands on his nonexistent waist. "Besides, to be honest, I think you should get rid of those hips."

"Well, Penny said she likes them," complained Gumball, crossing his arms.

"Oh," Darwin said, dropping his arms. "Did she also say that in real life, too?" he followed up, calling Gumball's bluff. Gumball hesitated before dropping his arms, drooping his ears, and slouching in defeat. He sighed, "No."

"Exactly. Now, come on." Darwin and Gumball walked to the front of the school, waiting for their sister. Once she caught up to them, they exited through the front of the school and walked home in mostly silence. After they passed the nearby high school of the same name, they noticed two teenagers on the opposite side walk. They were leaning against a railing that was next to a flight of stairs built into the adjacent hill.

One of the teens was an anthropomorphic tiger with curly black hair that was covered by a sagging toboggan. He wore navy blue jeans and a black T-shirt that had the "Me Gusta" meme face. On top of that was a black-and-blue plaid button-up collar shirt.

The girl facing him, possibly his girlfriend, was an anthropomorphic lioness who looked a little like Carrie in terms of her hairstyle: part of her long brown hair covered one of her eyes. She wore black combat boots, red skinny jeans, a white, though graying and yellowing, unzipped jacket, and under that, a graying plain tank top whose neck line was low enough to make the tops of her mostly developed breasts visible.

The tiger took a box from his jeans pocket, and from that box, he pulled out two small sticks. He handed one to the girl. Then, he took a lighter and kindled one end of each stick. They each stuck the other end into their mouths, inhaled, and then exhaled a gray cloud of smoke that went into each other's faces, though they didn't seem to mind.

Gumball, Darwin, and Anais watched the teens without turning their heads as they walked past them on the opposite side walk. Their stunned faces clearly showed that this was the first time they had ever seen teenagers smoking in Elmore. They observed, but the uncomfortable silence that followed suggested that they agreed not to say a word. To not get involved, especially not Anais.

* * *

**I know. The OCs that I included at the end there really only did one thing.**

**Hello, all! That's right, I'm still interested in writing fanfictions, not just reviewing them as a critic. Any who, this was a story in which I attempted to blend actual realism and the show's idea of realism to give a message about drugs, though without drugs. You know what else I did in it? I attempted to make fun of myself (see me about that if you have questions).  
**

**Okay, if you didn't already, I want you to read this again, unless ****it makes you want to puke**. I want you to read it with a critical eye. Focus on plot, flow, realism, originality, detail, grammar, characterization, believability, and such criteria. I did as I wrote it all, and I gave myself 6.5 out of 10 stars. What do you think of it?

**This is my longest story and one-shot. Man, writing is hard.**

**You know, I find it a little weird that my story _The Truth_ has 3.022K views. I would have liked for it to be something else because I could have made that story better than I did.**


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